Since 2013, the developers of Nxt have been hard at work with adding new features to the Nxt blockchain. They have been the pioneers for many of the features seen on other blockchains today, such as the ability to create assets, formerly known as colored coins, and the ability to trade them on a decentralized asset exchange right on the blockchain itself. While not an exhaustive list of features of Nxt, here are some of the features that are commonly used today. All of these features are accessible through the Nxt core client as well as with the use of the Nxt API.

Account Properties

Tags that contain a small amount of data can be set to other accounts right on the blockchain itself and contain unique (property) and non-unique (value) information. These tags can be referenced publicly on the blockchain but can be deleted by the tagged account if such is undesired.

Asset Creation

Assets are tokens on top of the Nxt blockchain that can be created to represent anything. Transferring assets from one user to another is recorded on the blockchain and uses NXT as a transaction fee. Dividends can be distributed in NXT to all asset holders and with the same transaction fee as if you were sending it to just one account – 1 NXT.

Aliases

Users are able to register combinations of letters and/or numbers, such as names and phone numbers, that are set to point to their Nxt account, so that other users can send to an alias instead of a long account number, a URL, or any piece of arbitrary data.

Currency Creation

Through the Monetary System, tokens can be created with special attributes normally associated with coins intended to be used for monetary purposes, such as requiring mining using SHA256, Scrypt, or multiple other mining algorithms, or making them controllable, where tokens are non-transferrable and can only be sent back to the issuer. Like assets, the transaction fees of these tokens are in NXT.

Data Cloud

Users are able to upload small files, such as small images and plain text files, into the blockchain itself, which can be accessed by anyone else. For private data, it is recommended to encrypt the file before uploading it.

Marketplace

On the Nxt Marketplace, users are able to purchase and list various products and services right on the blockchain itself, with no 3rd party restricting what can or can’t be listed. Prices of all goods are in NXT.

Messaging

Arbitrary messages can be sent between accounts on their own or as part of a transaction. Messages can be encrypted and can be unlocked with the private key of either accounts as well as by any 3rd party with the shared key, if desired.

Phased Transactions

Users can set conditional transactions and properties to delay a transaction to be executed at a certain block height, after approval from whitelisted accounts, or after a hash is announced to the network.

Shuffling

The Shuffling feature on Nxt allows for a greater level of anonymity by having NXT, assets, or currencies from different voluntary accounts to be mixed and then have them appear on new accounts accessible with the respective passphrases created by each shuffling participant.

Voting

Polls can be created with up to 100 options for voters to choose from, with the ability to require more than one option be chosen. Votes can also be set to be weighed with the amount of these a user has, or restrict the voting weight to 1 per account but requiring a minimum amount of it. Alternative Voting systems are also possible where users can rank preferences with the options provided.